Restless
by Lilo Stitch
Summary: Aragorn and Legolas have an insomnia driven chat the night before Helm's Deep. Non slash.


Author's Notes: Little one shot character study I felt compelled to do for the hell of it. I noticed in the books that Aragorn seems quite unsure of his abilities as a leader at times so I thought I'd expound on that. Plus, I always imagined it might be annoying traveling with someone like Legolas.

In the few months Aragorn had known Legolas, a few things about the elf struck him as a bit…off. There were the usually off sort of things about elves. The way they move, for one. Legolas would often perform ridiculous feats of physical prowess so casually that Aragorn would have to remind himself from time to time that he too was not capable of outrunning a pony. Or leaping onto a five foot boulder. Or shooting a beetle on a tree from several miles back, simply because he was bored. The way Legolas moved, one would think anyone could perform such marvels.

But that was just the way elves were. Aragorn had more experience in these matters than most, and he seemed to be the least affected by some of Legolas' more off putting habits. There was one oddity though that Aragorn could not accept. Legolas never sat still.

Most of the elves Aragorn knew loved to sit still. Arwen especially. Aragorn could remember one instance where the two of them were walking through the woods of Rivendell. Arwen stopped suddenly in the middle of the trail. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she put her finger to her lips. And they stayed that way, frozen in the center of the glade for what had to be about ten minutes. Finally, Arwen smiled and said, "It's so quiet."

It _was_ quiet. It was intensely quiet. It was the sort of quiet that almost felt as if it could suffocate you, as if all the world was engaged in a game of hide and seek you were it. She said, "I like the quiet." Then she laughed and continued walking. Sometimes, Aragorn would find himself suddenly sitting still in the wilds of the forests, listening to absolutely nothing. He would always think of her then and smile.

But Legolas did not like quiet. It seemed that Legolas and quiet were at constant odds with one another, and in any instance where there might be quiet, Legolas worked to destroy it. This certainly was not the case on the battlefield, where the elf could sneak up behind a foe so silently as to kill him six times before he ever knew what happened. But in idle moments, Legolas liked to make noise. Little noise. He sharpened his arrows. He cracked his knuckles. He'd whistle or hum or sing. Sometimes he would tap out rhythms on the rocks or bare earth. It would be just enough noise to distract him from his own thoughts, and had Aragorn not been a ranger, he would not have minded in the least. But Aragorn was a ranger. He could hear hoof steps in the ground from miles away. So to him, Legolas drumming a merry tune on Gimli's shield was almost deafening. He did his best to ignore it, because when traveling with other men, it was always best to simply allow everyone their quirks. Lord knows Aragorn had a few himself.

But tonight, Aragorn simply wanted to rest. And he saw no reason why Legolas shouldn't want the same. And so somewhere in the middle of his knuckle-cracking cantata, Aragorn asked him, "Don't you ever sleep?"

Legolas was leaning idly on the side of the wall, his back towards his comrades. "No," he said. "I've given it up."

Aragorn shook his head, and then rolled to a seated position. He had a feeling sleep was not in the cards tonight. "I was not aware it was a habit in need of breaking," he pointed out.

"I suppose it's not the sleep so much as the dreams," Legolas sighed. "I dream every night. I dream of battles and orcs and epic struggles. By the time I wake up, I'm three times as weary as I was the night before. At least if I am awake, I know for sure I'm just standing here."

Aragorn nodded at the odd but somehow infallible logic of his friend. He began rooting around in his bag for his smoking pipe when Legolas said, "Can I ask you something?"

Aragorn shrugged and then emerged triumphantly from the bag with his pipe. "Of course."

"If we were to emerge from this…um…alive," Legolas finished, his attempt to find a more optimistic turn of phrase failing him. "Will you really reclaim Gondor as your own?"

Aragorn sighed at the unoriginality of the thought. "That is the question of the hour, isn't it?" 

Legolas smirked a bit, amused at the reluctant monarch's irritation. "I'm not your mum, Aragorn. You can do what you please. I'm just asking out of friendly curiosity, since you have deftly managed to avoid giving anyone a straight answer on the subject. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some strategy of yours or if you really have no idea."

"Both, I suppose." He paused for a moment, as if this was the first time he was even considering the possibility. "It won't be easy," he concluded.

"No, it won't."

"There will be resistance."

Legolas almost laughed, "Ah, yes. I forgot about your crippling fear of confrontation."

It was the first time Aragorn heard sarcasm register in his companion's voice, and it seemed to suit him. "Confrontation doesn't bother me," he agreed. "I just worry that they will be right in confronting me. There is nothing in me that indicates I will be an improvement over their current situation."

"You don't really believe that." It was not a question.

But Aragorn did. "This…this here," he waved his arm around the room, summing up the entire epic war. The sleeping soldiers, the wounded men, the battleworn shield and swords. "This is easy."

"Easy?" Legolas said in disbelief. "If this is easy, Aragorn, than I can't think of anyone else better suited for the position."

"The _struggle_ is hard but the choice is easy. There is good and evil, black and white. The path is obvious. We must stop Sauron from obtaining power or all will suffer. But after this…no matter which side wins. Things won't be so easy. There won't be any obvious right or wrong. Things will be uncertain and ambiguous and gray. Any fool can charge into battle but to try and make your own…to steer your people this way and that, to make them pay for your own mistakes…the thought terrifies me. I don't think I can do it."

"You can try," Legolas said.

"And if I fail?"

"You would not be the first. If every leader before you made only perfect decisions we would not be here."

"Yes," Aragorn said. "And I suppose that's what worries me."

Legolas smiled, then actually sat down for a moment, resting his head against the wall. "You know," he said. "I never did much care for the kingdoms." He closed his eyes, a sight that appeared to Aragorn as somewhat miraculous. "But I do miss the kings."

Aragorn said nothing for a moment. He simply finished what was left in his pipe and rolled onto his back, enjoying his first moment of true silence since he and Legolas were practically introduced. He sighed, and then said to no one in particular, "So do I."


End file.
